Double Duty
by LunarxLight
Summary: Loqi didn't quite remember how he got in this situation, but he found himself stuck working for the Empire, while also feeding information to Cor for Lucis. At first, he wasn't aware of the dangers, but he soon finds out that this wasn't as easy as he thought it would be.
1. Chapter 1

_"How many are there?"_

"Nine."

 _"Five?_ "

"No, nine!" Loqi hissed in reply, moving his hand away from the earpiece he had in. Sometimes, he swore that man was deaf. He always had to repeat himself.

 _"And at the northern gate?"_ Cor asked, awaiting for the other's reply.

Loqi looked in that direction to see that only two Magitek were guarding the gate. After double checking, he turned on his earpiece again.

"There's only two. Perhaps that would be the best place to start." Loqi sighed, glancing around his surroundings. He was scouting out an imperial base for none other than Cor the Immortal. His old rival. How he even managed to get himself in this situation; he didn't remember. He just knew that one day he broke his allegiance to the Empire and started working for Lucis. It's been about 4 years since he started spying, and he was just starting to get the hang of it.

 _"Perhaps you're right. Next, I need you to check out the armory. Tell me exactly what we're up against here."_

Loqi stood up from his spot, dusting the dirt off of his clothes with a groan. He always hated this part. Moving his hand up again, he turned on the earpiece.

"Got it."

Having walked inside the base, he turned the mic on once more.

"The power here is low like everywhere else, so there won't be much machinery to deal with." Loqi commented, making his way to the armory. He saluted a few passing soldiers and continued down the long, dimly lit hallway.

Ever since the crowned Prince had disappeared, all of Eos was shrouded in a never ending darkness. Light was hard to come by these days, and the main sources of energy came from either imperial bases, or the town of Lestallum. Of course, the bases were closed to the public no matter how much people begged for entry.

Loqi had watched so many innocent people be ripped to shreds from daemon attacks right outside of the bases, and each death he witnessed slowly ate him up inside. He's seen so much death in the past years, yet it wasn't getting any easier for him. That was the main contributing factor as to why he joined up with Cor.

He eventually arrived at the armory, punching in the pin number on the lock to open the door. He glanced around once more before he walked in, closing and locking the door behind him. Knives, swords, guns, explosives... You name it, and it was there. Though, most of these weapons were especially crafted for MT soldiers to use, and since most of those soldiers went rogue, a majority of these weapons were useless now. He took a mental note of all the usable weapons he saw, clicking his mic on before he spoke in a hushed voice.

"I'm in the armory now. Most of these weapons are obsolete, thankfully. The rest is just the usual you see at any other base. It shouldn't be much of a hassle to take it over..."

 _"Good. I don't wish to spare more men than I have to..."_ The voice replied. Loqi didn't say anything else, taking one last look around the armory before he turned to walk out, speaking into the mic as he opened the door.

"I suggest the best time for a raid would be at 2PM. That's the changing of shifts, so it would catch them all off guard." Loqi mumbled, stepping out of the armory only to bump into someone, looking up to see who it was. It was the leader of the base.

"Gnh-!" Loqi made a choked noise of surprise.

The taller man looked down at Loqi since he was much shorter, an eyebrow raising in suspicion. He had heard part of what Loqi had said before.

"What will catch who off guard?" He asked as he crossed his arms over his chest. The Niffs were on high alert ever since the darkness started since they had been taking in volunteers. Needless to say, a good lot of traitors had been terminated like it was nothing, some of them having been loyal to the empire for years.

Loqi just looked up at his commander in dumb silence, trying to think of the words to say, of a story to make up. He couldn't think of anything, simply remaining silent as he stared at the other blankly. His heart was hammering in his chest. Was his cover blown? No, but it would be if he didn't think of something!

"Uhh...-"


	2. Change

It was a rather warm night in Lucis. The air was humid and the temperature was warm. It was nothing Loqi couldn't handle.

He was sent on a mission to purge an Imperial base of all daemons. At first, things were going quite well. He and his squad of 7 were taking out lesser daemons left and right. It took them merely a half hour to fight their way into the base itself. When they got inside, they thought it best to split up. Four went to the old west wing, and the other three went with Loqi to the main elevator. Their main priority of this purging mission was to restore the power and get the lights back on. That would make things a hell of a lot easier for them. It was rather easy to get in, only a few Flan daemons had appeared. They were easy to take care of.

"This is a piece of cake. We'll finish this in no time at all!" One of the squad members had said as she made her way down the hall along with Loqi and the others. Loqi merely remained silent as he continued to lead the way. He was usually quite the talker, but when he had a mission to do, he didn't even bother with small talk. He had to focus on the task at hand. That's how he had been taught. He didn't even bother with names. The four of them walked down the long hall for what seemed like an eternity, daemon pests popping up left and right.

The squad member who had spoken up before decided to walk up ahead to see just how long the hallway went on, though she remained in sight, not but a few minutes later a piercingly loud screech had come from above, a surprise spell instantly taking her down. The now three of them quickly drew their weapons, searching left and right, up and down, trying to spot the enemy that had killed their squad member. Whatever this enemy was, it knew sudden death spells, and that alone made the situation dire. They searched for a few moments until the attacker finally showed itself, it coming down from its hiding spot on the ceiling. A Necromancer. Great. Just what they needed.

Loqi ordered the squad for one to take the left and for the other to take the right while he took it head on. They all three aimed their rifles at the monster and fired away all while trying to keep their distance. The Necromancer swiftly moved out of the way and went back to it's hiding spot. Damn. This thing was intelligent. One of the squad members managed to catch a glimpse of the monster in the beams of the ceiling and immediately fired. But, sadly, he had missed. He missed and the bullet ricocheted straight back to him with a lethal blow. Now, there were only two. Perhaps splitting up hadn't been the best idea. Loqi ordered the last squad member to hold his fire, but he was already long gone.

 _'Damn coward ditched me!'_ Loqi thought to himself as he slowly backed away from where he had last seen the monster. This was bad. This was very bad. Loqi decided to retreat, quickly turning on his heels to run away. He ran down the hallway, keeping his hands tightly gripped on his weapon. They were so close to their destination, then this had to happen. Gods. He was almost out of the building when suddenly his arm was hit with a flame spell.

"Fuck!" He hissed out, quickly trying to put out the small fire, almost to the door when a paralysis spell got cast on him. _'Fuck, fuck, fuck...'_ He thought to himself, unable to move as the monster drew closer. It didn't want him to escape. _'I can't die here..'_ He cried out in his mind, his heart pounding in his chest.

Just as the monster reached him the spell wore off. Thankfully. He bolted out the door the first chance he got, not turning to look back. The monster was persistent, though, it casting one last poison spell on him, though it didn't slow him down any. He eventually made it out of the base and stopped to catch his breath, shaking faintly from how weak the poison was making him feel. Curatives were hard to come by these days, so of course the Empire had none to spare for such a mission.

Loqi figured that the rest of his squad had either made it out, or died inside, because it was deathly silent. He wasn't sticking around to find out. Every man for himself when it comes to these situations.

Letting out a shaky sigh, he slowly made his way back to HQ, silently praying to the Six that he wouldn't run into any more daemons. He took careful steps as he walked, trying to stay quiet as to not draw attention to himself, hoping no daemons would spawn near him. He walked for what seemed like hours until his legs gave out. Dammit. The poison was really taking a toll on him. He groggily used his arms to sit up, his vision blurring and everything going slow. Here he was, severely poisoned and stuck in the middle of nowhere. In the dark. Surely the daemons would come and finish him off soon enough. He carefully stood up, him being a bit off balance a he walked. Was the air getting more heavy? No, no...It was just him.

He walked for a few more minutes before he heard the sound of an Iron Giant spawning. -Or a Red Giant. He didn't know yet. He looked behind him to see that the base he had left was still in sight, a sigh of doubt leaving him. He wouldn't make it back, would he? He looked back in front of him to see the bright flame of a sword. Well, that answered his question. It was a Red Giant. His body gave out as he slowly sunk to the ground, weakly holding up the rifle he held onto. Gods, he was so out of it he was seeing double. He couldn't even aim straight. Regardless, he took a few shots at the giant until what ammo he had was depleted, simply lowering his arm as he set the gun down. He just sat there now, watching as the Red Giant approached. There was nothing he could do now and he was too weak to move anymore. As the monster drew closer, Loqi closed his eyes with a sigh of acceptance. He thought he wouldn't make it out.

Just as the monster was about to deliver the finishing blow, Loqi heard a loud clang of metal hitting metal along with the sound of a daemon dissipating. He weakly opened his eyes to see someone standing in front of him and the Red Giant melting back into the ground. The person in front of him sheathed his weapon and turned to face Loqi.

A few seconds after that, Loqi found himself too tired and weak to remain conscious, catching one last glimpse of his 'savior' before he finally fell unconscious, falling back onto the cold, hard, ground.


End file.
